Brightline, a hybrid mental health provider for kids and families, has opened its third clinic and announced a new CEO.
The clinic is in Manhattan and comes on the heels of Brightline’s location in Brooklyn opening earlier this year. Brightline also has a clinic on Long Island, and plans to open eight more clinics in 2026. The company has seen surging demand for mental healthcare and psychological testing for kids and teens, executives say.
Naomi Allen, Brightline’s co-founder and current CEO, will be transitioning to executive chair of the board as Kari O’Rourke joins as new CEO in December. Allen will focus on corporate strategy and growth for Brightline, including strengthening payer and provider partnerships. O’Rourke will oversee the day-to-day operations with a focus on scaling in-person clinics.
O’Rourke is a nurse practitioner by trade. She has over two decades of experience, including in leadership roles at CVS Health, Landmark Health, Cortica and Imagine Pediatrics.
“Couldn’t be more excited about her background and just her as a human being,” Allen told Fierce Healthcare about O’Rourke. “She’s an incredible, warm, servant-leader. As you often see, these clinicians that become executives, they just have this incredible mission orientation and values alignment.”
"Naomi and the team at Brightline have set a new standard of care for how family and children’s mental healthcare is delivered, both virtually and in-person," O’Rourke said in a press release. "My vision is to expand Brightline’s reach by scaling our clinical model and operations, ensuring we can impact even more families looking for high-quality, evidence-based mental health care."
Brightline is focused on measurable, outcomes-based care and offers advanced treatment for complex mental health needs. It offers in-person psychological testing for autism, learning disorders, executive functioning, school readiness, giftedness and more. It also cares for kids with more common concerns, like depression and trauma, offering therapy, psychiatry and medication management. It can also diagnose and treat OCD, ADHD and behavior disorders.
Since its founding in 2019, Brightline has served hundreds of thousands of kids. It offers a flexible, hybrid care model, with many parents choosing their initial visit to be in-person and then followed by subsequent telehealth.
Insurance coverage is important to the company. It is currently in-network with Aetna, Cigna, Anthem, United and local Blues. Across California, Brightline runs a program on behalf of the Department of Health Care Services that offers free mental health services for kids up to age 12, regardless of insurance status.
Brightline has also focused on developing strong referral partnerships with leading providers, including Northwell Health. Northwell primary care docs and its mental health advocacy team can send patients to Brightline directly and the teams can communicate on treatment. “It just allows the primary care clinician to be more engaged and involved and know what’s going on in the life of that patient,” Allen said. Several other partnerships are in the works with other leading New York health systems and pediatrics practices, per Allen.
Among the new clinical programming Brightline is targeting for 2026 is a focus on summertime—a season when families experience meaningful disruption that can affect kids’ mental health. This might be because school is out and kids who are receiving mental health services at school don’t have access, or simply disruptions in sleeping patterns.
It’s rare for a founder to step back when a company is doing well, Allen said. “It’s in many ways a testament to just how passionate I am about our business and our mission,” Allen said. “I had this epiphany that there are leaders out there that I could bring in…who [have] incredible domain experience and can really accelerate us to accomplish our mission and our vision.”
Brightline is growing and has a strong balance sheet, per Allen. It is looking to hire more clinicians. Allen also highlighted the company’s recently launched associates program, which is an opportunity for pre-licensed recent graduates to amass hours as they work toward licensure. The program is a unique opportunity to train in evidence-based care for child and family therapy services.
Often, trainees apprentice under other clinicians who don’t have experience with structured, evidence-based care programs and, therefore, can’t effectively practice them, Allen explained. While other therapy, like supportive or play-based therapy, has a place, she said, it is less effective than therapeutic protocols that have been tested in clinical trials.
“We’ve very carefully curated a team of psychologists that are training associates in how to do thoughtful, evidence-based, measurement-based care, specifically for children and teens,” Allen said. The program’s first cohort of associates are currently in training.
Brightline is backed by investors like Boston Children’s Hospital, Northwell Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Google Ventures, KKR and Oak HC/FT. Half of the planned clinics for 2026 will be in the tri-state area, with the goal of expanding into New Jersey and Connecticut.